Watch new video interviews with artists Penelope Umbrico and Silvio Wolf speaking about their work in the exhibition now on view at Aperture Gallery, The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography curated by Lyle Rexer.

In the first video clip, Penelope Umbrico presents her installation of photographs TVs (From Craigslist), a series of TV images for sale she culled from Internet with the reflection of flash, giving insight of the seller’s presence and creating an indirect intimacy. Interested in conceptual rather than formal abstraction, Umbrico considers herself a documentary photographer, “a traveler through media,” sourcing found generic images and examining in this work, the shift of value from an Internet image to a physical one in the art market.

Penelope Umbrico from Aperture Foundation on Vimeo.

In this second clip, Silvio Wolf, one of Italy’s entries into the 2009 Venice Biennale, speaks about his Horizon and Chance series combining straight photography and the unexposed ends of film rolls as negatives exposed to light. The end results are mesmerizing and meditative colorful images about light and absence of light. Wolf also mentions the importance of space in his work where the viewer reflected in the plexiglas is part of the image.

Silvio Wolf from Aperture Foundation on Vimeo.

Stay tuned next week for video clips of Barbara Kasten and Bill Armstrong.

View related Silvo Wolf print.

View related Penelope Umbrico print at 20×200.

View related microsite.

Watch previously posted videos with Lyle Rexer part 1 & part 2, Charles Lindsay and Jack Sal.

Take advantage of a rare sale at 20×200, going on through Tuesday, June 16 at midnight. The entire inventory is 20% off with coupon code RIDONK at checkout. Included in this sale is work from photographer Penelope Umbrico whose work is currently on display as part of The Edge of Vision at Aperture Gallery. These beautiful prints are perfect for collectors of all ages.

Click here for full details on this incredible deal!

79 Moons From Flickr – 51 Visible, 87 Suns From Flickr – 29 Visible © Penelope Umbrico

In collaboration with 20×200, A Jen Bekman Project, Aperture Foundation is pleased to present two exclusive images from Penelope Umbrico, from the series Suns from Flickr, now available starting as low as $50 for a 11″x14″ print.

Penelope Umbrico combines multiple “sunset” and “moonrise” photographs found on Flickr, and superimposes them in Photoshop. Each photograph is visible to a greater or lesser degree depending on the amount of opacity she gives each, which is indicated in the titles of the images: 79 Moons From Flickr – 51 Visible and 87 Suns From Flickr – 29 Visible.

About the Aperture/20×200 project, Lesley A. Martin, Aperture’s Book Publisher, who curated a show of Umbrico’s work notes:

“It’s pretty much one year ago today that Penelope Umbrico first premiered her now nearly ubiquitous Suns from Flickr as part of the show I curated for the 1st annual NYPH. This piece in particular received much-deserved critical response — Ken Johnson called it ‘spectacular’ in his review for the New York Times. The piece will also now appear in the forthcoming Aperture publication The Edge Of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Photography by Lyle Rexer. So I’m super excited that for this, Aperture’s first collaboration with Jen Bekman’s 20×200 project, Penelope has generously agreed to create two brand new images — each of which is related to the Suns installation, but in classic Umbrico fashion, are totally new and creative re-renderings of her ideas for the specific purpose of the 20×200 format.

“So we’re all super excited about it here at Aperture. Special thanks to Penelope Umbrico and the folks at 20×200! We’re looking forward to hearing people’s comments about the prints now that they’re available … ”

20×200’s mission is to make art easily accessible for everyone, and offers extremely affordable exhibition-quality prints, available exclusively online. So buy one of these brilliant images today and support Aperture in the process.

Aperture Gallery presents The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography, curated by Lyle Rexer. From the beginning, abstraction has been intrinsic to photography, and its persistent popularity reveals much about the medium. The Edge of Vision showcases the work of nineteen contemporary photographers who base their practice in some form of abstraction. Rexer defines abstraction as “a departure from or the eliding of an immediately apprehensible subject.” Within this broad definition, a host of approaches explore aspects of the photographic experience, including the chemistry of traditional photography, the mediation of lenses, the direct capture of light without a camera, temporal extensions, digital sampling of found images, radical cropping, and various deliberate destabilizations of photographic reference. Aperture will celebrate the opening of this exhibition with a reception featuring a live DJ Saturday night.

On Friday, May 15, Aperture hosts a panel moderated by Lyle Rexer, featuring artists Jack Sal, Silvio Wolf, and Penelope Umbrico at The New York Photo Festival. The panel will be followed by a book signing of Rexer’s recent Aperture publication The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Photography.

The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography
Panel Discussion

Friday, May 15, 2009  5:00 pm

FREE with Festival Admission

New York Photo Festival
St. Ann’s Warehouse
38 Water Street
Brooklyn, New York
(718) 254-8779

The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography
Exhibition and Opening Reception

Opening reception:
Saturday, May 16, 2009, 7:00–10:00 pm

Exhibition on view:
Friday, May 15, 2009 –Thursday, July 9, 2009

Talk & Book Signing with Lyle Rexer: Tuesday, June 16, 6:30 pm      

FREE

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555

Click here to purchase your copy of The Edge of Vision: The Rise of Abstraction in Contemporary Photography.

Click here to purchase The Edge of Vision limited-edition portfolio.

This Thursday, May 14th, Aperture and 20×200 will release a limited-edition archival pigment print by Penelope Umbrico, made to benefit Aperture Foundation and celebrate the exhibition The Edge of Vision: Abstraction in Contemporary Photography, opening Saturday at Aperture Gallery.

20×200 offers ridiculously affordable exhibition-quality prints, available exclusively online. Popular editions sell out quickly, so sign up for the  20×200 mailing list today to be notified as soon as the print is released. Also, check Exposures on Thursday to be among the first to be notified of the edition’s release.

The actual image is a closely guarded secret until the announcement in Thursday’s 20×200 newsletter, but we can tell you that the image is related to Umbrico’s Suns From Flickr project.

The Ubiquitous Image: Before and After

Before…

Christy Wiles installing Suns from Flickr

Artist and Chair of Bard MFA Photo Penelope Umbrico installing Tvs

Artist Curtis Mann installing his Modification Series

Fellow New York Photo Festival Curator Tim Barber

Views from the Internet, Penelope Umbrico

Artist Harrell Fletcher

Tvs, Penelople Umbrico